Sheep hunters stranded near Atlin rescued after cold night in mountain cave

Hunting a mountain sheep in the North is bound to be memorable for any hunter.

Chad Girardinof Whitehorse and his nephew Matthew Westleyfrom Atlin, B.C., will definitely remember their hunt last weekend and not just because they got a ram.

The two were rescued from near the top of amountain in northern B.C.early Sunday morning, after spending a frigidnight in a small cave surrounded by snow.

Girardin, an experienced outdoorsman, had to put his skills to use during the ordeal.

Girardin, Westley, and Girardin's cousin GordLoverinhad goneafter a thinhorn, or Dall, sheep inthe backcountry area ofMcDonald Lake, near Atlin.

While Girardin and Westleyhiked up into the mountains on Saturday, Loverinstayed at his truck down belowin case they needed help.

Girardin and Westley walked over severalmountains, and finallymanaged tosuccessfully huntan eight-year-old ram.

"We didn't have a packboard on us, so we had to go back to the truckwhich is about a four-kilometre hike," said Girardin.

It was about 2 p.m., and both Girardin and Westley walked to the truck to retreive the packboard, then back to the carcass topackout about half of the sheep. Theyplannedto return for the rest of the meat later.

But day soon started to turn to nightand the temperaturestarted to drop fast.

"We made it back to the last ridge,"saidGirardin."There was probably three mountains we climbed around the side of to get to where you could pretty much see the truck."

Westley was tired out at thatpoint itwas his first sheep hunting trip.

Girardin soon realized they would notmake it down the mountain in thedark. It would be too dangerous to carry onwith only one headlamp.

'We would have to spend the night'

"I realized, you know, maybe my nephew wasn't going tomake it ...I kept trying to encourage him, and then I even took the meat out of the pack so that it could help me to assist him up the mountain a little bit better," Girardin said.

"But thatwasn't helping too much. We were able to get to about 30 feet from the top. But then we were just too done, so we decidedwe would have to spend the night."

Girardinsaid they then signalled to Loverin"with a few gunshots," to go and get help. Loverindrove to Atlin and told RCMP that his hunting partners did not come down the mountain.

"Police and Atlin Search and Rescue immediately responded and immediately got people in the area where the two hunters were last seen," said Atlin RCMP Const.Brendan Macdonald.

Police and rescue crews then spent the night below the mountain, waiting for daylight as it was too risky to perform a rescue in the dark.

Meanwhile, Girardinsaid he found a small shallow rock cave on the side of the mountainand he and Westleycrawled in. They piled rocks in the front of the cave and used the packboard's nylon material to help block the wind.

Theyhuddled together to try and stay warm. There was no wood nearby, and lots of snow, so it was too difficult to make a fire, Girardinsaid.

'A great lesson'

According to RCMP,the temperaturedipped to 10 C overnight.

At first light, rescue crews got to the pair and then flew them by helicopter to the Atlin medical centre. The two hunterswere showing signs of early hypothermia but were in good spirits.

Girardinsays he's thankful to everyone who helped with the rescue.

"If hunting was easy, everybody would be doing it," he said.

"This is my nephew's first hunting trip, and it wasn't as easy as one would think. It's a great lesson for him, because it can get very tough."

The three hunters later went back and finished taking the rest of their meat from the mountain.